This Burden I Bear
by Sorrow Reminisce
Summary: When Thor loses his battle against Kurse, Loki finds himself the unwilling recipient of Thor's legacy. Saving the universe and seeing Jane Foster back to safety is no burden he wishes to bear, but then again... He can hardly rule a universe if there's no universe left to rule, can he? Based on a fic prompt. Thor 2 AU. Lokane.


_**A/N: **This fic is based on prompt #29 at magic-n-science-prompts (tumblr) with inspiration also from a gifset created by tumblr user mswyrr - Links are in my profile._

_This fic is a Thor 2 AU with the plan of it being a slow build Lokane story. Further info including the original prompt summary and a note on posting status/chapter lengths, storyline etc are in the footnote. And now... I'll shut up and get on with the story. :)_

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><p><strong>This Burden I Bear<strong>  
><em>by Sorrow<em>

The fresh scars upon Svartalfheim's bleak barren landscape were what finally led Loki to Thor. He had but to follow the trail of rocks torn loose from the ground, and the track marks of warring bodies gouged deep into the sand.

Of the Kursed, there was no sign. But his brother lay face up upon the blackened ground; massive elvish sword still protruding from his chest. Life-blood soaked into the black sands. Body already cooling in the fierce winds that whipped across the plains. His hammer - for all the good it did him in the end - lying useless in his slackened fingers.

Loki dropped to his knees beside his brother's prone body; one hand outstretched towards a well-muscled arm before falling short of its target. _Thor. You great oaf. Why did you not listen?_

"You fool." He snarled as the hands he could not bring to touch his brother curled tight at his sides; nails biting into palms. "It was _I _who was pledged revenge - it should have been _I_ who fought the Kursed!"

A movement to his right snapped him from his bitter reverie and he reached for his dagger - half-buried in the sand - defensive and ready as he spun to his feet.

The mortal - Thor's woman - halted in her tracks; hands raised to prove them empty, eyes wide and and horror-stricken as she stared at the body beyond him.

Loki nodded, frowning, and the mortal stepped past, shrugging out of her overcoat as she moved to kneel beside the Thunderer. "This isn't happening. You're not dying on me Thor." The wind stole away her reassurances. Nonetheless, she placed her folded coat over the wound and bore down upon it; expression fierce. Determined.

He watched. Numb and grim. Yet with a strange sliver of sceptical hope that defied his instincts. There was no sense in staunching the blood. It had already ceased its flow. Still, he made no move to stop her. If anyone could drag Thor from the feasting halls of Valhalla, it would likely be this ferocious little mortal he had become so enamoured by.

"Is this entertaining enough for you?" The woman glared through tangled locks of brown hair, lank with sweat and the grit of the land. "Don't you have magic stones or something?"

"Can you not see it's a lost cause?" The slow creep of defeat flattened Loki's tone. He shrugged, as if Thor's death had not affected him. _Liar_. "Healing stones cannot bring back the dead."

It was a barrier he had long build around himself: The nonchalance. Inwardly, a tight knot of despair uncoiled slowly from his chest and burrowed deep into his stomach. Resentment hot on its heels. First Frigga, now Thor, and all because of this mortal and the burden she had carried within her?

"He was your _brother_! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

The woman sat back on her haunches and struck the hair from her face, leaving a smudge of blood upon her brow. Thor's blood. Loki stared at the red smear, fixed and wordless. The accusations were but white noise - meaningless. He let her anger washed over him. Thor was dead. _Dead. Dead. Dead…_ It was a nightmare from which he could not rise.

"...and I wouldn't be surprised if you set this up! That's the kind of monster you are, isn't it!"

An eery silence hung in wake of the woman's outcry. Loki blinked. Baffled.

"You dare to speak to me thus?" He finally snapped, stepping over Thor's remains to grab the mortal's arm and wrench her towards him. His fingers pinched into her skin until her knees buckled and a gasp of pain escaped her lips, but he paid no heed. "You _dare _speak to a Prince of…"

And there he faltered, unable to say what had once come so proudly to his lips. Prince of Asgard? No. Never more would that be the title for _Laufey's _son. _Prince of Monsters _his mind finished cruelly, and he squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head; as if by doing so he could block the truth from his heart.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" The woman managed, fingers prising at his own in search of relief from his grasp. His eyes snapped open and he relinquished her, turning his head with shame from the angry red imprint upon her skin. _Monster indeed._

"I shouldn't have said that... " She massaged her arm before sinking on trembling knees back to Thor's side. Her efforts to revive him now stilled as she slid her fingers through his hair, sweeping golden strands from his brow. "I saw you take on a half dozen of those other guys. It's not like you can be in two places at once, right?"

"Indeed." Loki said flatly, watching her work her fingers through Thor's hair. What did her words matter? She was but a mortal. Her judgement weighed less than air. And if they were to survive what would come next, she wouldn't be the last to blame him for Thor's death.

And what _would _come next? For once Loki's ever-scheming mind was at loss for what to do, and such helplessness was a feeling he would sooner do without. He shifted his gaze to the dunes beyond her. Working on an immediate problem was a starting point.

"Tell me, have you been in a sandstorm before?"

"What?" She faltered, confused. "No. I mean, we had dust storms in New Mexico sometim-"

"Well, Jane Foster." He stepped forward, noting the fear in her eyes as they sidled to the dagger in his fist. Then he extended his empty hand towards her. "I suggest you follow me."

For several moments the woman - _Jane _- stared blankly at his hand. He half-wondered if grief had rendered her daft - or if she was simply mortified at the thought of accepting his hand. And then as thought of the later flushed him with indignation and he drew his hand away, her eyes widened in understanding and she glanced over her shoulder.

A vicious vortex of darkness gathered a mile or so away. Eery and violent as it shifted slowly across the black sands. Swallowing the dunes up in its greedy tendrils so that it stretched across the sky and up into the dark clouds themselves.

"The sandstorms of Svartalfheim are unlike anything you've known in your realm. Of that I have no doubt." Loki waited for Jane's attention to return to him before continuing, "You will not survive long if you remain here, exposed on this plain."

"But what about Thor?" She whispered, broken. "Won't it bury him?"

Loki dropped his eyes to his brother. To where Mjolnir lay upon his fingertips, pinning him to the ground more effectively than any Elvish skewer. "Burials are customary tributes to the dead on your world, are they not?"

"I suppose. But not to the Aesir, are they?" Jane's fingers tightened on Thor's shoulder. "Frigga was given a proper send off. The boat… The fire… Doesn't Thor deserve as much?"

Loki blinked away. Something akin to grief rose to his throat. He swallowed it down. Locked it away. "And what do you propose we do?" He asked at last. "Cart him about with us? No. The Allfather will send someone to retrieve his precious corpse. Of that you can have no doubt."

"How will they find him if he's buried under that!" The woman cast a finger towards the sandstorm, her expression fierce and desperate

Loki let a slow deep breath escape him, gaze wandering their surroundings; taking note of the rocky outcrops nearby. "If we _survive _to make it back to Asgard, I will lead them here myself."

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to concede. She met his gaze defiantly, then moved to her feet. _Finally! _Nodding, Loki turned north-west of the storm and set off across the plains. They had lost enough time already.

After several paces, he turned to check on his begrudged companion.

...Who was still at Thor's side, hands hooked under his armpits as she struggled to drag him across the sand.

"What are you doing!" He cried, appalled. "We have no time to waste on… on sentiment!"

"I told you - I'm not leaving him like this!"

_For Norns sake…_ The first winds of the sandstorm were reaching them now. He could feel the grit buffer his back like a vicious caress. Clearly the woman was as mad as she was stubborn. He could just as easily just leave her here and no one would ever be the wiser.

_But that he owed it to Thor…._

With an exaggerated groan, Loki crossed the ground between them in long strides and reached for her arm. "And I will not stay here quibbling over a corpse!"

"Good! You can help me carry him then." Unrelenting, Jane shook off his grasp and continued to try and haul Thor across the sand. Her face set in a resolute mask.

"Stubborn wench!" Loki swore softly, shaking his head. Then adding with a weary mutter, "I did not ask for this brother, but if this is the burden I am to bear, then so be it."

Swatting Jane's hands away, Loki swooped down and dug at the sand around Thor's trapped hand. He could not lift that damned hammer, but perhaps the ground was soft enough that he could work his brother's hand out from beneath it…

"Can't you just lift it?"

Loki shook his head, a bitter laugh his only reply.

At last, he worked Thor free, then pulled him into a sitting position and hoisted him over one shoulder; knees buckling ever so slightly beneath the Thunderer's weight. With a final scowl in Jane's direction, Loki turned towards the nor-westerly mountains.

"So your brother is a burden now?" Jane pressed as she trailed after him.

"I was speaking of _you_, woman." He retorted, swinging around to meet her eyes. "And you're welcome."

Jane opened her mouth and promptly closed it again. Dumbstruck. It was a pleasant change, Loki figured, as he turned and picked up his pace. This time not bothering to check if the woman followed. He had her beloved across his shoulders. As much a carrot on a stick as any.

**tbc...**

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><p><strong>End note:<strong> This is the prompt this story is based on: "Loki's plans to fake his own death go awry when Thor _actually_ dies during the battle instead. Afterward he and Jane have to save the universe because, even though he's an asshole, the whole universe dying means there'd be nothing left to rule and that is simply _not acceptable_ to him. In addition, Jane is all that remains of the only two people Loki really cared about and he _will not_ let anyone kill her and take the life they died to preserve."

In hindsight I kind of feel that their reactions are perhaps too underplayed. Jane should be more devastated, Loki more rageful - especially in regards to his reaction when she called him a monster. But then, I'm also writing with the idea in mind that they're both too kind of shocked and dumbstruck. I'm sure it will sink in for them later... I have no inclination for Jane to suddenly 'get over' Thor and fall for Loki so easily, so expect that although Thor is dead, he's still very much a presence in their minds.

Now bear in mind, since this is already an AU, I'm not going to write it in line with the rest of Thor 2's events. In the movie, Jane and Thor had a very small sliver of time to stop Malekith before the alignment of realms was in full effect. That's not going to work for me if this is going to become a Lokane fic. Therefore in my story, it's going to take more like a few days - maybe quite a few days! It may have taken Jane three days to fall for Thor, but how many days might it take for her to fall for Loki in the wake of her grief for Thor? A lifetime? Okay, we don't have that long. Thank goodness for creative license! So I'm going to play with the timeline a fair bit by utilizing those portal jumps that took place during Malekith and Thor's fight. ;)

I'm also hoping to keep chapter lengths to around 1500 words so I don't take as long to update as I usually do. Fingers crossed! The next chapter is written, and I plan to post it in three or four days to give me time to *hopefully *have the third chapter ready. So, that's the plan... Let's see if I can stick to it!

I really value any feedback anyone would like to place - don't be afraid to leave constructive criticism too! Knowing a story is actually being read is THE BEST THING EVER! _I will shut up now before I start grovelling and offering people cookies... _


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